Four new regional offices of ATS to come up in state

Patna: Four new regional offices of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), a special unit formed in the Bihar Police to combat terrorism, would be established. Apart from the ATS headquarters in Patna, one regional office each will be set up in Gaya, Motihari, Darbhanga and Purnia.

“The police headquarters prepared and sent a proposal to the home department. The process of their formation will begin as soon as approval is received,” ADG of police (law and order) Pankaj Kumar Darad said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference at the police headquarters, Darad said the nearby districts would be linked to these regional offices.

“The formation of these regional offices will enhance the working capacity of the ATS. Their responsibility will be to keep an eye on terrorism-related activities as well as religious, anti-national and criminal activities. The regional offices will work parallel to the Special Branch present in all districts. Each regional office will be commanded by a deputy SP-rank officer,” he added.

Darad said the ATS monitors terrorism-related activities in border areas. “The ATS also continuously monitors and gathers intelligence on people who are released from jail after being imprisoned under the Sections related to anti-national activities,” he said.

He also highlighted the work of the ATS social media unit, which identified 176 people linked to extremist ideology. “Among these, 12 people with hyper-extremist, fanatical tendencies were mentally motivated and counselled,” Darad said.

The ADG added that one officer and one constable have been specially deployed in all police stations across the districts for intelligence gathering. “Their responsibility is to collect intelligence on drug trafficking, illegal liquor trade, terrorism, crime and all other important issues, and convey it from district to headquarters level. They coordinate closely with the counter anti-terrorism (CAT) teams present in the districts,” he said.

Darad also spoke about the special weapon and tactics (SWAT) team under the ATS, which monitors 257 sensitive establishments in the state. “Mock drills and reconnaissance were conducted in 194 establishments last year and 41 this year. A total of 176 ATS commandos have been specially trained so far at the National Security Guard (NSG) centres in Manesar and Kolkata,” he said.

The ADG also discussed the process of seizing illegal property of criminals under Section 107 of the BNSS, which has been rapidly implemented. “Altogether 1,421 criminals were identified. Proposals against 407 persons were sent to the concerned court. Property seizure proceedings are ongoing against 80 criminals, while the property of three has been seized so far. These include Kumar Ranjan Omkar of Chariya Bariyarpur, Manjhaul police station in Begusarai district; Rakesh Kumar alias Chunnu Thakur of Kazi Mohammadpur police station in Muzaffarpur district; and Deepak Kumar of Chak Phul, Ganga Bridge police station in Vaishali,” Darad said.

He added that preventive action was taken against 12,69,616 people from Jan to Dec 22 this year.

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